At the beginning of the winter 2023 quarter and coming to UCI Public Health from the USC School of Social Work, Karen Lincoln, PhD, MSW, MA, was appointed as a professor of environmental and occupational health as well as the director of the UCI Center for Environmental Health Disparities Research. Lincoln was part of the UCI Black Thriving Initiative Faculty Cluster Hire: Environmental Health Disparities Program.
Over the past 15 years, Lincoln has established strong roots in Los Angeles analyzing the social, psychosocial and public health factors related to health disparities among Black Americans. As a researcher and social worker, she investigates societal and social determinants’ impact and how to inform and design interventions that can restore and promote the health and well-being of Black Americans across the lifespan.
In the following Q&A interview, we get to know Lincoln a little better to see how she plans to make waves at UC Irvine:
What does public health mean to you?
As a social worker and social scientist, public health has always been a foundation of my research and service. You can find ways to connect to everyone’s goals and aspirations, which showcases how all-encompassing public health is.
Even in my role as a social worker and sociologist, I reflect on how public health was interwoven into my work. I founded the outreach and engagement partnership Advocates for African American Elders (AAAE) in response to disparities I found in lower-income areas of Los Angeles where older African American residents were struggling to access care. Through the AAAE, I addressed a significant historical barrier to medical and scientific research in the African American communities of Los Angeles, spending several years developing the largest African American cohort of study participants through culturally appropriate engagement and education.
What drew you to UCI Public Health and Orange County?
The moment I learned about UCI’s Black Thriving Initiative I knew it was the perfect fit. The initiative’s focus on understanding anti-Blackness and to interrogate structural racism in its myriad forms is exactly the purpose of my research. I am proud to be part of the UCI Black Thriving Initiative Cluster Hiring Program as I bring my lived experiences as a black woman researching disparities impacting my own community.
I am looking forward to continuing many of my research projects here in Orange County. I received a list of local Black-owned businesses and organizations that I look forward to personally reaching out to connect with. I am also encouraged to engage with our diverse student body to inspire a critical analysis of their field and be more evaluative on how we research, interact and work with the community.
What are your current research areas and opportunities for collaboration?
My work focuses on improving clinical and community-based treatment for African Americans and their communities, particularly around mental health, Alzheimer’s disease, and related dementias. My groundbreaking BrainWorks study, published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, used culturally tailored text messaging to improve Alzheimer’s literacy rates for prevention in African American communities. The BrainWorks program also incorporated ongoing care, financial planning and social well-being for older adults and their caregivers.
This past year, I launched the BrainWorks 2.0 study, a transdisciplinary partnership with USC Keck School of Medicine and Viterbi School of Engineering, and the first human study to use neural imaging to gain a deeper understanding of how sleep quality impacts the brain clearance system, a potential predictor of Alzheimer’s disease.
As a social scientist, I am most excited about expanding my research and collaborating alongside my UCI faculty peers and strengthening my role as Director for the Center for Environmental Health Disparities Research. Through this Center, it is my goal to bridge more conversations between climate change and racial justice and explore the everyday threats our community experiences. I want topics of environmental justice to be more attainable and relatable in our research enterprise.
I am looking forward to bringing my perspective and research to not only the UCI research enterprise but also to the Orange County community. Our work can only effect change if it truly has community buy-in that is established with trust and respect.
